1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electrical connector, and particularly to an electrical connector having a spacer.
2. Description of Related Art
With the development of communication and computer technology, electrical connectors for high-speed data transmission are widely used in electronic systems. IEEE1394 (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers; IEEE) connectors are commonly used to connect external and internal peripheral devices to a computer for performing high speed data transmission therebetween. These connectors typically employ a plug connector terminated to a transmission cable and a receptacle connector mounted on a circuit board of the computer.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,315,608 discloses a receptacle connector comprising an insulative housing having a base portion and a mating portion, a plurality of conductive terminals retained in the housing, an inner shield enclosing the mating portion of the housing for electromagnetic interference protection, and an outer metal shield enclosing both the housing and the inner shield for further electromagnetic interference protection. In some special applications, a large distance is required between the mating portion and a printed circuit board (PCB) on which the receptacle connector is mounted. A high profile receptacle connector is accordingly developed to satisfy this requirment. However, the high profile receptacle connector may cause a variety of problem. For instance, as the complexity of the high profile housing increases, the difficulty of manufacturing the high profile housing increases. Another problem is that the terminals received in the high profile housing have elongated mounting potions, which results in that the elongated mounting portions are difficult to be positioned and therefore are inaccurately connected to the PCB.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,120,321 and 6,155,872 both disclose a stacked connector having a spacer. The spacer defines two rows of terminal receiving holes receiving corresponding terminals of the stacked connector therein. However, forming the two rows of the terminal receiving holes complicates the manufacture of the spacer. Furthermore, it is labourious to assemble the spacer onto the stacked connector due to the terminal receiving holes of the spacer.
Hence, an electrical connector having an improved spacer is desired to overcome the disadvantage of the prior art.